THE new recycling services in West Devon have resulted in the amount of garden waste and card collected increasing by more than 200%.

The services started in September last year and figures released by the council show that in January and February there was an increase of 212% on last year's figures.

Andy Barron, the council's waste minimisation and recycling officer, said: 'As a result of this increase and our other new recycling services, the waste sent to landfill in West Devon during January and February was down 25% compared with the same period last year, which is excellent news.'

Every household in the borough now has regular garden and card waste collections and in addition, many residents compost their own garden waste.

As summer approaches, the council guarantees to accept at least four bags of garden waste per collection from each household. Residents are asked to remove any tape from cardboard before presenting it at the kerbside, as this will help the composting process.